You've been put in charge of fixing a food shortage.

[King Keasbey]

The Ogallala aquifer currently supplies water for almost 30 percent of US irrigated farmland. This area happens to be the grain belt. Most of this grain is corn, which happens to be in most Americans' food in one form or another. This aquifer and all others just like it have just been depleted and are not replenished with rainfall. Stored reserves of corn will last only a few years

Example of an aquifer, the Ogallala.

Your mission is to design a plan, system or other method of overcoming the drying out of Central US farmland and the foodshortages that would ensue.

[Jumping Jehosaphat]

Genetically modify the s**t out of some corn so that it can grow in more arid conditions.

[Avgvsto]

Corn is more of a cash crop than a food item.

[Avgvsto]

Jumping Jehosaphat

Genetically modify the s**t out of some corn so that it can grow in more arid conditions.

It really wouldn't take much more than breeding, and I'm sure they've already developed breeds like that just that they aren't quite as profitable.

[Jumping Jehosaphat]

Avgvsto

Jumping Jehosaphat

Genetically modify the s**t out of some corn so that it can grow in more arid conditions.

It really wouldn't take much more than breeding, and I'm sure they've already developed breeds like that just that they aren't quite as profitable.

no, what keeps them from being used is public hysteria and lack of knowledge on genetically modified produce.

[King Keasbey]

Avgvsto

Corn is more of a cash crop than a food item.

Corn is used for almost everything if you look at your food ingredients. They're always listed in most abundant first.

Not to mention animal feed. Milk cows, cows for slaughter, pigs, everything takes feed derived from corn.


I'm not sure what this guys sources are beyond his experts(if they are), but it's worth a watch keeping that in mind.

[Patton]

Establish a government program through the Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with state governments located along the Pacific-Atlantic-Gulf coasts, to build a series of desalination plants. Potable water is always useful, as well as (possibly) the salt and other byproducts.

[Holidazed]

GMO's and some type of water system maybe desalination.

[black_wing_angel]

Create factories on the Pacific Coast, that emit large amounts of water vapor into the air. The vapor accumulates in the sky, forming clouds, becoming dense and heavy as they move east, until they themselves can no longer sustain density, and emit liquid water back to the ground, in the form of rain. Over the Midwest. Supplying crops with (mostly) natural rainwater.

Whenever a drought is experienced, we fire these bastards up, and tell Mother Nature to ******** herself.

[black_wing_angel]

The Keasbey Knight

Avgvsto

Corn is more of a cash crop than a food item.

Corn is used for almost everything if you look at your food ingredients. They're always listed in most abundant first.

You can thank government subsidization for that. Because of that subsidization, corn is unnaturally cheap. And the primary use for it, is HFCS, which is a nice, cheap sweetener. Which, if memory serves me right, is supposed to be diabetic friendly.

[washu_2004]

If the goal is solely to end a food shortage then wheat oats and barley are the obvious choices , there are many drought resistant and high yield strains available as a result of research done to make Australia farmable. These only need a fraction of the water of a corn crop to produce food of a similar quantity and quality.

And the waste products of these crops can be processed into animal feeds.

About the only thing that will be lost is the high fructose corn syrup, and losing that would be no big deal and America may end up healthier for losing it.

[Glorious Leader Luna]

Import water from a Asteroid

might as well Genetically modify the corn and cattle to need less water as well

[Exoth XIII]

Manipulate farm subsidies on the state level to encourage crops that require less water in the midwest. We've got plenty of water here on the coast.

Incidentally, I thought we were producing plenty of corn, and that it was wheat that was a problem this year.

[The20]

Plaster the entirety of the Nevada desert with solar power plants. Use the energy to purify sea water from the Gulf of Mexico for use in farming. We'll need thousands of kilometers of pipelines as well. I project the cost to amount to 10 billion, minimum. When can we start?

[Avgvsto]

The Keasbey Knight

Avgvsto

Corn is more of a cash crop than a food item.

Corn is used for almost everything if you look at your food ingredients. They're always listed in most abundant first.

Not to mention animal feed. Milk cows, cows for slaughter, pigs, everything takes feed derived from corn.

Yea sweeteners are in almost everything. And yea people feed all their livestock with whatever product is cheapest at a given time. If the midwest's corn is no longer the most abundant then we got the wests even better produce production.